Constitution of the Empire of Japan (November 3 1946)

Chapter 1. The emperor

Art. 1. The emperor is the symbol of the State and the unity of the people; he derives his functions from the wish of the people, in which sovereign power resides.

Art. 2. The imperial throne is dynastic in conformity to the Law on the Imperial House approved by the Diet.

Art. 3. For all the actions of the emperor in the matters of State it is necessary the opinion and the approval of the Cabinet, and the Cabinet has responsibility of it.

Art. 4. the emperor develops those functions of State that are anticipated in the present Constitution only. He doesn't have in any case powers of government.
The emperor can delegate his public functions in the way foreseen by the law.

Art. 5. When, in conformity to the Law on the Imperial House, a Regency is founded, the Regent managed his public functions in place of the emperor. In such case, the first paragraph of the preceding article is applied.

Art. 6. The emperor names the Prime Minister who has been designated by the Diet.
The emperor names the President of the Supreme Court who has been designated from the Cabinet.

Art. 7. The emperor, hearing the opinion and gotten the approval of the Cabinet, develops the followings public functions, in name of the people:
---Promulgation of the amendments to the Coonstitution, of the laws, of the decrees of the Cabinet and the agreements;
Convocation of the Diet;
Breaking -up of the Chamber of the Representatives;
Call of the general elections of the members of the Diet;
Attestation of the nomination and the resignations of the ministers of State and the other officials, as established by the law, as well as of the conferment of the full powers and the credential letters to the ambassadors and the plenipotentiary ministers;
Attestation of the amnesties, general and special, of the commutations of punishment, of the grace and of the rehabilitation;
Conferment of the honorary distinctions;
Attestation of the ratification and the other diplomatic actions, as established by the law;
Reception of the bank drafts of the ambassadors and the foreign ministers
Representation of the State in the official ceremonies.

Art. 8. Any ownership can be conferred to the Imperial House, or from it accepted or surrendered, without the authorization of the Diet.

Chapter 2. The Renunciation to the War

Art. 9. Inhaling sincerely to an international peace founded on the justice and on the order, the Japanese people renounce forever to the war, as sovereign law of the Nation, and to the threat or to the use of the strength, as mean to resolve the international controversies. To achieve the objective proclaimed in the preceding paragraph, they won't be maintained forces of land, of sea and of air, and not even other war means. The law of belligerency of the State won't have recognized.

Chapter 3. Rights and The Duties of the People

Art. 10. The demanded requisites for the Japanese citizen have determined from the law.

Art. 11. It won't be prevented people the enjoyment of some of the fundamental rights of the man. Such fundamental rights of the man, guaranteed to the people from the present Constitution, have been recognized to the people of this and the future generations as eternal and inviolable rights.

Art. 12. The enjoyment of the liberties and the rights guaranteed to the people from the present Constitution will have preserved from the continuous vigilance of the same people, that will be abstained from any abuse of such liberty and of such right and it will take care of the use of it for the public well-being.

Art. 13. All the persons that constitute people will have respected as individual. Their rights to the life, to the liberty and the pursuit of the happiness, within the limits of the public well-being, will constitute the supreme objective of the legislators and the other organs responsible of the government.

Art. 14. All the citizens are equal in front of the law and it won't owe to be any discrimination in the political, economic or social relationships for motives of race, of religion, of sex, of social conditions or of family origins. Neither the nobles, neither the noble titles will receive some juridical recognition. No privilege will accompany any conferment of honors, any decoration or distinction, neither some of such conferments will be valid beyond the life of the individual who is currently titular or who will be able to become in the future.

Art. 15. People have the inalienable right to choose its representatives and its officials and to revoke them.
All the representatives and the officials are at the service of the whole community and not of a particular group.
The universal suffrage is guaranteed to the adults for the election of the representatives of the people.
In all the elections will be maintained inviolate the secretiveness of the vote. No voter can be called to answer, publicly or privately, of the choice made.

Art. 16. Every person has the right of pacific petition for the reimbursement of damages, for the removal of official public, for the approval, the abrogation or the amendment of laws, of ordinances and of rules, and for any claim in order to other matters; neither some person can have subdued to a discriminatory treatment to have assumed the initiative of a similar petition.

Art. 17. Every person that has suffered a damage for an illegal action of a public official has the right to ask its reimbursement to the State or to the competent juridical person, according to the formalities established by the law.

Art. 18. No person will be kept in servitude of any kinds. The unintentional servitude, unless constitutes punishment of crimes, it is forbidden.

Art. 19. The liberty of thought and conscience is inviolable.

Art. 20. The liberty of religion is guaranteed to everybody. No religious organization will receive any privilege from the State; neither it will practice any political power. No person will be forced to participate to any action, celebration, rite or religious practice.
The State and its organs will be abstained from the religious education or from any other religious activity.

Art. 21. The liberties of reunion, of association, of word and of press and all the other forms of expression are guaranteed. It won't have maintained any censorship, neither it will be violated the secret of any mean of communication.

Art. 22. Every person will have liberty to choose and to change his residence and to choose his occupation in the limits in which this is not in contrast with the public well-being.
The liberty of all the persons to travel in foreign States and to abandon his own citizenship will be inviolable.

Art. 23. The liberty of teaching is guaranteed.

Art. 24. The marriage will be founded entirely on the mutual consent of both the bridegrooms and will be maintained through a mutual collaboration, on the base of equal rights for the husband and for the wife.
The laws about the consort's choice, the laws of ownership, the inheritance, the choice of the domicile, the divorce and other matters related to the marriage and to the family will be formulated inspiring by the principles of the individual dignity and the fundamental equality of the sexes.

Art. 25. Every person has the right to the safeguard of a least level for his material and cultural life.
In every demonstration of the human cohabitation, the State strives to encourage and to improve the protection and the social safety, as well as the public health.

Art. 26. Every person will have the right to receive an equal education, correspondent to his abilities, as established by the law. Every person will be forced to assure that all the boys and the girls, without exception, placed under his protection, receive the elementary education. Such obligatory education will be free.

Art. 27. All the persons have the right and the duty to work. Type-norm for the conditions of job, for the salaries, the schedules and the rest will be established by the law. The exploitation of childish work is forbidden.

Art. 28. The workers' right to get organized, to bargain over and to act collectively is guaranteed.

Art. 29. The law of ownership or possession of the good is inviolable. The laws of the ownership will be defined by the law in conformity to the public well-being. The private ownership can be dispossessed for public utility behind correct remuneration.

Art. 30. People are subject to the taxes according to the formalities established by the law.

Art. 31. Nobody can be private of the life or of the liberty, or to be subdued to a penal sanction if not in conformity of the procedure foreseen by the law.

Art. 32. To nobody can be denied the right to have recourse to the jurisdictional organs.

Art. 33. No person will be halted unless by order uttered by the competent magistrate, that specify the crime of which charge is made to the person, unless this last have been halted in flagrancy.

Art. 34. Nobody will be halted or held without having immediately informed about the charge on him pending, and without that he can be immediately assisted by a lawyer. Nobody can be imprisoned in lack of valid motives; besides, on request of whoever, motives themselves will owe to be specified without delay, in public hearing, in front of the magistrate, to the presence of the accused and his lawyer.

Art. 35. The right of everybody to the inviolability of the domicile, of his own papers and of the personal effects, from searches, inspections and sequestration, won't sufficiently be invalidated without a motivated order, with the description of the place to be searched and of the things to seize, or under the conditions anticipated in the art. 33.
Every search or sequestration will be effected by special order for the specific purpose issued by the magistrate.

Art. 36. It is forbidden absolutely to the public official to inflict tortures and cruel punishments.

Art. 37. In all the penal business, the accused will have the right to an express and public trial from an impartial court. Complete possibility will be given to examine all the testimonies to him and he will have the right to an obligatory procedure to get testimonies to his advantage at public expenses.
In every time the accused will have the assistance of a competent defender; and if the accused were not able to get the defender with his means, this will have gotten to him from the State.

Art. 38. Nobody will be forced to testify against himself.
No confession will be kept valid as element of test if done under constraint, torture or threat or after a prolonged arrest or detention.
Nobody can be convicted or punished in the cases in which the only evidence against it is constituted by his confession.

Art. 39. Nobody can be penally accused for an action that was legal in the moment in which had been committed, or for which he had been already absolved, as nobody can be submitted in two trials for the same crime.

Art. 40. Whoever is absolved, after having been halted or held, can require the damages to the State, at the conditions foreseen by the law.

Chapter 4. The Diet

Art. 41. The Diet is the supreme organ of the government power and is the only legislative organ of the State.

Art. 42. The Diet is formed by two Chambers: the Chamber of the Representatives and the Chamber of the Advisers.

Art. 43. Both the Chambers are constituted by chosen members, representatives all the people.
The number of the members of every Chamber is established by the law.

Art. 44. The requisite to be elector or member of each of the two Chambers is established by the law.
There will not be, however, any discrimination for motives of race, of religion, of sex, of social condition, of family origin, of education, of ownership or of income.

Art. 45. The duration of the office of member of the Chamber of the Representatives is of 4 years. However, such duration can be shortened with the breakup of the Chamber of the Representatives.

Art. 46. The duration of the office of member of the Chamber of the Advisers is of 6 years but the elections for half of the members take place every 3 years.

Art. 47. The constituencies, the procedures of vote and all the other problems connected to the election of the members of the two Chambers are regulated by the law.

Art. 48. Nobody can belong contemporarily to the two Chambers.

Art. 49. The members of both the Chambers will receive suitable annual remuneration from the Treasure in conformity to the law.

Art. 50. Except that in the cases established by the law, the members of both the Chambers cannot be halted while the Diet is in session. Any member halted before the opening of the session will be left in liberty during the period of the same session on request of the Chamber.

Art. 51. The members of both the Chambers won't be kept responsible out of the Chamber for the discourses, the debates or the votes done inside the Chamber.

Art. 52. The Diet will be summoned at least once a year in ordinary session.

Art. 53. The Cabinet can summon the Diet in extraordinary session.
When a fourth or a greater fraction, of the components of the one or the other Chamber requires it, the Cabinet is forced to proceed to the convocation of the Diet.

Art. 54. When the Chamber of the Representatives is broken up, it owes to be a general election of the members of the Chamber of the Representatives within 40 days from the date of the breakup and the Diet has to be summoned within 30 days from the date of the elections. When the Chamber of the Representatives is broken up, the Chamber of the Advisers has to adjourn its jobs immediately. Nevertheless, the Cabinet can decide, in case of national danger, to summon the Chamber of the Advisers in extraordinary session.
The provisions deliberated during a session, as that mentioned in the preceding paragraph, have provisional character and are struck by nothingness, if they are not approved by the Chamber of the Representatives in the 10 days following to the opening of the new session of the Diet.

Art. 55. Every Chamber judges the electoral controversies related to its members.
Nevertheless, to be able to deprive a member of his seat a decision is necessary assumed with the majority of at least two third of the present members.

Art. 56. In both the Chambers cannot be treated matters if it is not present at least 1/3 of the total of the members.
In every Chamber, all the matters will be definite with majority of the presents, except that has not established otherwise from the Constitution. In case of parity of votes, the person that presides will decide the matter.

Art. 57. In both the Chambers the debates are public. Nevertheless, a reunion can be done in camera if two third, or more, of the present members adopt a resolution in such sense. In every Chamber oral proceedings of the debates are compiled. Such oral proceedings are published and are largely distributed, doing exception only for the passages corresponding to the reunions kept in camera that it is reputed to stay secret.
On application of a fifth, or more, of the present members, the votes of the members in order to any matter will be mentioned in the oral proceedings.

Art. 58. Every Chamber chooses its President and its Office of Presidency.
Every Chamber adopts its Rule for the reunions and for the procedure, as well as its inside Rule and it can punish disciplinarily its members for violation of the regulation norms
Nevertheless, to expel a member, a deliberation is necessary taken with majority of two third, or more, of the presents.

Art. 59. A bill or a proposal of law becomes law after the approval from both the Chambers, except otherwise established by the present Constitution.
A bill or a proposal of law that has been approved by the Chamber of the Representatives and rejected by the Chamber of the Advisers becomes law when approved a second time by the Chamber of the Representatives with a majority of two third, or more, of the present members.
Despite the dispositions of the preceding paragraph, the Chamber of the Representatives can summon the reunion of a joined Committee of the two Chambers, as foreseen by the law.
In the case that the Chamber of the Advisers definitely pronounced itself in the 6 days from the reception of a bill or a proposal of law approved by the Chamber of the Representatives, not keeping track of the parliamentary vacations, the Chamber of the Representatives can decide that such omission is equal to a rejection of the bill or the proposal mentioned from the Chamber of the Advisers.

Art. 60. The budget must have been presented first to the Chamber of the Representatives.
When, in the examination of the budget, the Chamber of the Advisers assumes a different decision from that of the Chamber of the Representatives, and in the case in which a joined Committee of both the Chambers, foreseen by the law, doesn't succeed in reaching an accord, or if the Chamber of the Advisers doesn't succeed in definitely pronouncing in the 30 following days to that of the reception of the budget approved by the Chamber of the Representatives (not including the parliamentary vacations), then the decision of the Chamber of the Representatives will be considered as decision of the Diet.

Art. 61. The second paragraph of the proceeding article is also applied to the approval, from the Diet, of the agreements that have been concluded.

Art. 62. Every Chamber can develop some investigations in order to the matters of government and can demand the presence and the audition of witness, as well as the presentation of documents.

Art. 63. The Prime Minister and the other ministers of State are able in any moment to participate in the sessions of every of the two Chambers to the purpose to take part to the debates on the bill and the proposals of law, without caring if they were, or not, members of the Chamber. They have to appear in front of the Chamber when it is required their presence to give answers or explanations.

Art. 64. The Diet will constitute a Court of accusation, with the members of both the Chambers, to the purpose to try those judges against which are been begun some procedures of dismissal.
The matters related to the impeachment will be regulated by the law.

Chapter 5. The Cabinet

Art. 65. Executive power is up to the Cabinet.

Art. 66. The Cabinet is constituted by the Prime Minister who assumes the presidency of it, and from other ministers of State, as established by the law.
The Prime Minister and the other ministers of State have to be civilians.
The Cabinet, in the exercise of the executive power, is collectively responsible toward the Diet.

Art. 67. The Prime Minister is designated among the members of the Diet with deliberation of the same one. And such designation has the precedence in the agenda.
If the Chamber of the Representatives and the Chamber of the Advisers are not agreeing, and if a joined Committee of both the Chambers, as established by the law, doesn't succeed in reaching an accord, or the Chamber of the Advisers doesn't designate any in the term of 10 days from the designation completed by the Chamber of the Representatives (not including the parliamentary vacations), the decision of the Chamber of the Representatives will come then considered as the decision of the Diet.

Art. 68. The Prime Minister names the ministers of State. The majority of the ministers has to be selected among the members of the Diet.
The Prime Minister can discretionary revoke the ministers of State.

Art. 69. If the Chamber of the Representatives will approve a motion of no confidence, or it will reject a motion of confidence, the whole Cabinet will have to introduce the resignations, unless the Chamber of the Representatives is not broken up within ten days.

Art. 70. In case of vacation in the position of Prime Minister, or after the convocation of the Diet subsequently to a general election of the Chamber of the Representatives, the whole Cabinet will have to present the resignations.

Art. 71. In the cases mentioned in the two preceding articles, the Cabinet continues in its functions until the moment in which a new Prime Minister is named.

Art. 72. The Prime Minister, in representation of the whole Cabinet, submits to the Diet the bills of law and reports on question connected to the national life and to the foreign politics; and manages the overseeing and the control on the varied branches of the administration.

Art. 73. The Cabinet, besides the administrative functions of general character, it owes:
To apply faithfully the laws and to conduct the business of the State;
To direct relationship with the foreign countries;
To conclude the agreements. However, it has to get the preventive or, according to the circumstances, following approval of the Diet;
To emanate decrees to the purpose to translate in action the dispositions of the present Constitution and the laws. However, it cannot include penal dispositions in such decrees, unless is not authorized by the law;
To decide in subject of general amnesties, of special amnesties, of commutations of punishment, of grace and of rehabilitation.

Art. 74. All the laws and all the decrees will be signed by the competent minister of State and countersigned by the Prime Minister.

Art. 75. The ministers of State, during the period in which they are in Office, they are not subject to judicial action without the consent of the Prime Minister; but with this, the right is not diminished to begin such action.

Chapter 6. The Judicial Power

Art. 76. The judicial power in its totality is attributed to the Supreme Court and the Inferior Courts founded by the law. Any extraordinary court won't be founded, neither they can be conferred to any organ or corporate institution of the Executive Power judicial powers in last appeal. All the judges are independent in the exercise of their functions and they have to observe the present Constitution and the laws.

Art. 77. The Supreme Court is gifted with regulations power, in strength of which it establishes the rules of procedure and jurisdiction, the matters related to the lawyers, the inside discipline of the courts and the administration of the judicial business.
The public attorneys are subject to the power of regulation of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court can delegate power to establish norms for the inferior courts to the Courts themselves.

Art. 78. The removal of the judges can have been effected only following the formulation of a public accusation, except the case that they are declared judicially incapable, for mental or physical motives, to carry out their functions. No disciplinary action against the judges can have carried out from an organ or office dependent from the executive Power.

Art. 79. The Supreme Court is composed from a President and from judges, in the number established by the law; the judges themselves, except the President, are named from the Cabinet.
The nomination of the judges of the Supreme Court will be ratified by the people on the occasion of the first general election of the Chamber of the Representatives following to their nomination; and it will be again submitted to ratification on the occasion of the first general election of the Chamber of the Representatives after a period of around 10 years, and so on.
In the cases mentioned in the preceding paragraph, when the majority of the votes points out that they are favorable to the revocation of a judge, this must be dismissed.
The matters submitted to ratification will have been established by law.
The judges of the Supreme Court will be set retired when they will reach the limits of age established by law.

Art. 80. The judges of the inferior Courts will be named from the Cabinet choosing them in a list compiled from the Supreme Court.
All these judges will be in Office for a ten year period, with the right to be reinstated, in the agreement that they will be set retired when they will reach the age to such purpose established by the law. They will regularly receive at established intervals suitable remuneration that won't be decreased during the period in which they will stay in Office.

Art. 81. The Supreme Court is the Court of last appeal; it will have power to decide on the constitutionality of any law, decree, rule or official action.

Art. 82. The trials must be carried out and the sentences must be issued publicly. However, in the cases in which a Court decides at the unanimity that the publicity is dangerous for the public order or for the ethic, a trial can be carried out in secret hearing; but the trials for the political crimes and for the crimes of press, as well as those that concerns the people laws enacted in the Chapter III of the present Constitution, will have always to be carried out in public hearing.

Chapter 7. Internal Revenue

Art. 83. The power to administer the public finances will be practiced in the ways that the Diet will establish.

Art. 84. No new taxes cannot be introduced, neither it can be modified those existing if not by law, or according to the procedures established by the law.

Art. 85. No expense will be effected, neither the State will assume obligations, if not in the ways authorized by the Diet.

Art. 86. The Cabinet will prepare and will submit to the Diet, because it ca discuss and deliberate, a budget for every financial year.

Art. 87. With the purpose to take protective measures against unexpected deficits of budget, the Diet can authorize the institution of a reserve fund, whose employment is decided from the Cabinet under its own responsibility.
The Cabinet has to get the following approval of the Diet for every payment effected with drawings from the reserve fund.

Art. 88. All the good of the Imperial House are ownership of the State. All the expenses of the Imperial House are approved by the Diet that votes the correspondent accredits in the government budget.

Art. 89. No part of the money or the public ownership can be destined for the benefit or the maintenance of any religious association or institution, or for any educational, charitable purpose or of beneficence that is not under the control of the State.

Art. 90. A final revision of all the expenses and all the entrances of the State will be effected every year from a Committee for the revision of the accounts and immediately submitted from the Cabinet to the Diet during the following financial year to the period which the revision is reported. The organization and the competence of the Committee for the revision of the accounts will be determined from the Diet.

Art. 91. At regular intervals and at least every year, the Cabinet will present to the Diet and the people a report on the state of the national finances.

Chapter 8. The Local autonomy

Art. 92. The norms about the organization and the operation of the local corporate bodies will be established by law, in conformity to the principles of the local autonomy.

Art. 93. The local public corporate bodies will constitute Assemblies, as their deliberative organs, in conformity to the law.
The principal executive officials of all the local public corporate bodies, the members of their Assemblies and all the other local officials established by the law will be chosen with direct popular vote within the single communities.

Art. 94. The local public corporate bodies have the right to manage their own good, their own business and their own administration and to compile their own statutes within the laws.

Art. 95. The Diet cannot approve a special law applicable only to a local public corporate body without the consent of the majority of the electors of the local public corporate body itself, manifested in conformity to the law.

Chapter 9. The Amendments

Art. 96. The initiative for the amendments to do to the present Constitution is up to the Diet, through the vote of two third of the members of each Chamber. Such amendments will be submitted to the people then for the ratification, that will require the favorable vote of the majority of all the votes expressed to that purpose, in a special referendum or on the occasion of elections established by the Diet.
The amendments in such way ratified will be immediately proclaimed by the Emperor in name of the people, as integral part of the present Constitution.

Chapter 10. The Supreme Law

Art. 97. The fundamental human Rights guaranteed by the present Constitution to the people of Japan are the fruit of the struggle that from remote epochs the man conducts for the liberty. They have survived to
Numerous and fatiguing tests and are conferred to this and future generations, with the order to guarantee forever their inviolability.

Art. 98. The present Constitution is the supreme law of the Country; no law, ordinance, imperial edict or other action of the Government contrary, in everything or partly, to the dispositions here enunciated it will have validity and force of law.
The agreements concluded by Japan and the in force international law will owe to be meticulously observed.

Art. 99. The emperor, the Regent, the ministers of State, the members of the Diet, the judges and all the other public officials are forced to respect and to defend the present Constitution.

Chapter 11. Additional dispositions

(Omitted)

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